


Jury Duty

by GoringWriting



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Barry Allen Needs a Hug, Leonard Snart Lives, POV Leonard Snart, Poor Barry, Protective Leonard Snart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 01:54:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17840186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoringWriting/pseuds/GoringWriting
Summary: Thanks to one Barry Allen, Leonard Snart is now your model citizen on paper. No record, no warrants, no arrests. Now he has to do something he never thought he'd actually ever have to do...Jury Duty. A simple murder case, he'll sit there, collect his $40 dollars a day, and maybe something interesting will happen but he doubts it. After all he's never heard of Clifford DeVoe...so the case must be a boring one...right?Based on a Tumblr post by Oneiriad.





	Jury Duty

“Hey Boss, you got a letter here, looks important,” Mick says tossing the envelope onto his chest and Len looks up briefly from his book to open it and his eyes widen when he reads the words and Axel falls into a fit of giggles leaning over the back of the couch.

“What’s got Axel so happy? Sam fall down the stairs?” Mark asks.

“I am standing right next to you,” Sam says.

“I said what I said.”

“Snart has jury duty!” Axel says falling backwards onto the floor.

“How?” Mick asks taking a swig from his beer.

“I made a deal with the Flash, I help him with something and he would delete my criminal record and every piece of evidence on me. I happen to be quite the upstanding citizen,” Len says stealing some of Mick’s popcorn.

“And I’m the queen of England,” Mick says scowling at him and shifting his popcorn away from where Len can get at it.

“What are you gonna do Cold?” Mark asks sitting in his armchair.

“I’m going to go, collect my forty bucks a day, legal US tender and laugh about the government paying me to judge criminals,” Len says and Hartley rolls his eyes.

“Leonard Snart, the only American who actually wants to report for Jury Duty,” Hartley says and Len gets up start looking through his clothes to find his nice outfit that he wears for things like this.

Before he leaves he turns and says, “you never know Hart, it might be interesting.

Two weeks later find him sitting outside the courthouse. The whole calling system to find his assigned court was ridiculous, but he did end up in criminal court...which will be interesting. Len hopes he gets a somewhat competent criminal, because if it’s an idiot Len might actually have to give him some pointers, or hit them upside the head for being an idiot.

Len gets a couple of funny looks from the security guards who run the metal scanners but he makes it to the waiting room and takes a seat before pulling out his knitting, he promised Mick a new hat, he pays little attention to the movie they put on. He has enough superheroes in his life, he doesn’t need them in his movies too.

He finds the how to be a juror instruction video ridiculous but he keeps his thoughts to himself. After all there are quite a few anxious looking people there and the video seems to relax them.

He stays there the full eight hours in the waiting room, he doesn’t get called once. 

On the second day, he manages to get called right before lunch. He sits in the small cramped room looking over the questionnaire he was given. 

Have you ever been convicted of a crime?

Well, not on paper. Thank you Barry Allen.

Have you or someone in your family ever been falsely arrested for a crime?

Technically it wasn’t a false arrest. They most certainly did what they were accused of.

When everyone in the stupid, tiny, unairconditioned room has filled out their papers, a judge is led in and she sits down with them and asks them even more questions and tells them a little bit about their ability to be unbiased during the case and Len wants to laugh at all the people lying through their teeth to get out of serving.

The judge then tells them a little about the case. It’s murder, so at least Len won’t be bored and it’s a CCPD employee. That is definitely interesting, maybe even enough to look Barry up and ask him about the guy.

Then the judge asks if this information means that anyone thinks they can’t serve and Len watches people come up with the most ridiculous excuses on the face of the planet and Len just sits there quietly. These people are passing up forty dollars a day to do nothing but sit and listen to what? Go back to their boring nine to fives? And people call criminals abnormal. It’s a cryin’ shame.

Len apparently manages to pass onto the next stage, the one where all the lawyers get to ask him question and decide if he can serve. When he’s walked into the courtroom Len is shocked to see Barry Allen sitting at the defense table looking like he took a couple of tumbles in the dryer. Which, if the sinking feeling in Len’s gut is right, is close enough to the truth. Barry must not have been able to make bail.

When Barry sees him he barely even reacts and Len worries about what might have happened while Barry was in prison waiting for trial. His eyes are dead looking inside and Len remembers what had happened to Barry’s old man, stuck in prison for decades for a crime he didn’t commit and Len is afraid that it’s about to happen again.

Len passes lawyer inspection and the trial is set to start a week later and Len has feeling that Barry is being framed by one of his villains, that is absolutely clear to Len. He hopes it’s not another evil speedster because that’d be a pain in the ass. 

Len does what he does best, he plans.

He sends Lisa over to StarLabs to get the full story, Len’ll be damned if he lets the the city lose it’s hero. Lisa comes back and gives him the full run down on Devoe and his plan and what actually happened and Len nods along and brings his rogues into it.

Axel, Hartley and Lisa go to Lab to help find (fabricate if they must) evidence to throw reasonable doubt onto the case. He puts Mark, Mick, Sam and Shawna in charge of stalling the trial as much as they can. 

Rosa is in charge of being the go between for dealing with the lawyer. They need someone not recognizable to help contact officials and shit. 

Len, under a fake name, pays Barry’s bail and gets him out of prison and home with his family. 

Len just hopes he wasn’t too late. Prison can do things to people like Barry.

He’s just gotten home from another hearing to reschedule the trial, apparently two jurors were suspected of being russian spies, one had to leave the country suddenly and it took all of the Lawyer’s skills to keep the remaining jury on duty, but he did. At one point during the trial when Len can no longer keep it postponed Iris gets up and Len knows in his gut what she’s about to say. 

Len is ready to do something to stop her, the public knowing Barry’s identity would be trouble for everyone he loves. People would go after them, criminals would storm the streets with no Flash to catch them and he worries for Iris’ safety, as Barry’s sister she’d be the first person attacked. But he also knows that if it were Lisa he’d do the same thing. It’s what siblings do.

He feels the familiar blankness of time when Barry is using his speed, good, those two need to talk. 

It’s actually Hartley’s idea to use Ralph. Axel was complaining about trying to get his sticky bombs to have the same consistency of Ralph when he stretches so Hartley was helping to study it when he figures out that Ralph should be able to alter his appearance. 

It takes a couple of tries to figure it out but soon they have pictures of Ralph pretending to be Devoe, and Rosa pretends to a down on her luck photographer and she goes to the Lawyer.

Len makes Barry go through with the trial anyway, if he’s acquitted then he can’t be charged with it again should Devoe try this shit again. Gotta love double jeopardy.

Barry walks home a free man a week later and Len is happy, he did a good thing. That should work on his karma for a while.

When he walks into his private work space he’s not expecting to find Barry Allen sitting on his desk a little color back in his face.

“Well, can’t say I expected you to be here,” Len says, sitting on the other corner.

“I wanted to thank you, if you hadn’t been on that jury I probably would have ended up in prison,” Barry says shuddering a little. 

“As I said once before, the Flash should be hero. You can’t hero if you’re stuck in prison,” Len says.

“How do you do it?” Barry asks.

“Do what?”

“Survive so much time in prison? I still have nightmares when I close my eyes,” Barry says.

“It isn’t something you get over. I wish I could tell you that one day you’ll wake up and not think about being ready to leave your cell on time, or hide small things away so only you know about it, you won’t hear noises you don’t want to identify in the middle of the night. But, there isn’t but what I found is, once I started filling the house with different noises I was able to sleep a little easier, instead of hearing noises of prison at night I hear Mick cooking a midnight snack, Axel fiddling with his boots. Try to surround yourself with sounds you’ll never associate with prison, also speak to a therapist. It really helps. I can give you the number of mine. She’s not practicing for anyone but heroes and villains so you don’t have to worry about civilians seeing you,” Len says.

“Thanks, I tried talking to my friends about this but…”

“I know, you don’t understand unless you’ve been there,” Len says.

“They tried,” Barry says.

“That’s all they can do. Keep them close, don’t push them away Barry. I did that with Lisa at first and it was one of the darkest points in my life,” Len says and Barry nods.

“I owe you one,” Barry says.

“No, I didn’t do anything that any decent upstanding citizen wouldn’t do. If anything you owe yourself, I wouldn’t have been there if you hadn’t erased my record.” Barry smiles softly and gets off the desk and leaves. 

“I’ll see you around Snart,” Barry says stopping in the doorway.

“Take care of yourself Barry,” Len says and Barry continues on his way out of the room.

“And…” Len starts and Barry stops, “And if you need backup...My number is in you pocket.”

“Thank you,” Barry says and leaves and Len moves to his chair and leans back wondering if he’s making a mistake letting Barry run out of here without saying more? Without offering more? What else does he have to lose?

“Hey Scarlet!” Len calls out and Barry comes back into the room.

“See you around,” Len says letting his mouth turn up into a smile and Barry’s face splits into a smile as well.

It’s a week later when he gets a call asking for help with moving a potentially dangerous meta if Devoe were to get his hands on him and he even manages to get a couple of shots on him. 

A few weeks later apparently hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or whatever happened because Dovoe’s wife goes AWOL and defects to their side.

It isn’t until after Devoe is defeated that Barry asks the question that Len would have thought would be first out of his mouth.

“Snart…”

“Call me Len, Scarlet.”

“Len, don’t take this the wrong way but how are you…” Barry trails off trying to find the right way to phrase it.

“So gorgeous? So kind?” Len asks and Barry blushes and his mouth hangs open. “I’m kidding Scarlet, I’m alive thanks to timey wimey bullshit at the pain in the ass known as John Constantine.” 

“Oh...are you doing anything later?” Barry asks.

“Why? Are you asking me on a date?” Len asks and Barry turns even redder.

“A bunch of us are going out for drinks later and I wanted to know if you wanted to come. I know you don’t drink but I could really use someone to talk to since I can’t get drunk,” Barry says.

“Sure Scarlet. I’ll keep you company,” Len says with a smile and grabs his jacket.

Best jury duty ever.


End file.
